Wendy's faces food safety issues

After the worm issue, problems for Wendy's started when a 24-year-old man ordered two burgers at its store in Gurgaon's Sector 29.He said he had discovered the pin when he bit into one of the burgers.John Sarkar | TNN | September 21, 2015, 19:30 IST

FILE PHOTO: After the worm issue, problems for Wendy's started when a 24-year-old man ordered two burgers at its store in Gurgaon's Sector 29.He said he had discovered the pin when he bit into one of the burgers. NEW DELHI: Wendy's, one of the world's largest burger chains, has run into food-safety issues here after opening its first restaurant in Gurgaon. After a customer allegedly found a worm in a Wendy's burger a few months ago, the US-based chain recently had another customer, who allegedly discovered a pin in a burger patty served at its store in Gurgaon. Wendy's said the issue was brought to their notice and was resolved.

“Nothing is more important than the quality and integrity of our food, we follow stringent procedures and supplier protocols. This was brought to our attention some time ago and was fully resolved at that time,“ said a Wendy's spokesperson to a questionnaire sent by TOI.

After the worm issue, problems for Wendy's started when a 24-year-old man ordered two burgers at its store in Gurgaon's Sector 29.He said he had discovered the pin when he bit into one of the burgers. “The pin was in my mouth and by the time I realised, it had broken into two,“ he said. “The Wendy's management was very nice and they assured me that such an incident would never happen again. They were in touch with me even after the incident.“

When asked whether it has overhauled its back-end operations after the twin x incidents, Wendy's did not respond. It also did not answer queries on its sourcing procedures in India. International burger chains operating in India usually have third party vendors from where they source their ingredients.

In an interview with TOI earlier, Sanjay Chhabra, director of Sierra Nevada Restaurants, the franchisee for Wendy's in India, had said the company is looking to open 40-50 restaurants in India at a cost of Rs 2 crore each. India's burgeoning $13-billion branded QSR (quick service restaurant) market has attracted nearly all major international burger chains including Johnny Rockets, Carl's Jr, Fat Burger and Burger King, who have come in and opened their stores here. The sector is expected to grow by around 26% year-on-year, according to Crisil.

While Nestle's recent Maggi ban has sparked off food-safety issues here, in markets such as the US, QSR chains have had to pay hefty compensations to consumers for lapses in food-safety. The most memorable incident is the Liebeck versus McDonald's case. In 1992, 79year-old Stella Liebeck bought a cup of take-out coffee at a McDonald's drive-thru in the US and spilled it on her lap. She sued the burger chain as the coffee was not having the prescribed temperature and was awarded around $2.5 million by the jury for punitive damage (burns).